Laivasse

It's still Crouch for me. Absolute blinder.

Neville's punditry is more insightful than that of anyone else on TV atm, that's for sure. I hope he's got the gig for a good few years. On the flipside, I think some of the things that make him very watchable as an analyst are the same things that make him a poor co-commentator thus far. The way that he clearly believes everything he says, kicks every ball (for both sides) regardless of the game and seems generally a nice bloke to chat about football facts with, all tend towards him getting given too long a leash by his bosses or his commentary partner during matches. His commentary tends to degenerate into irrelevant jokey banter, inappropriate groans when chances are missed, and general babble about whatever crosses his mind about the match. It just feels really slack and less than pro. If someone could have a word in his ear and tell him that his two roles have to be played differently, most of us wouldn't have any reservations in our praise.

Have you tried the thing of setting a striker/hammerfoot guy to 'Attack Near Post' and assigning CBs or two giants to 'Near Post Flick On' and 'Attack Far Post'?

I think the game warrants the hype. It's not just the fact that it's between 'big clubs' or that Utd are Sky darlings. Symbolically, it represents the most important test for City since they turned on their infinite money cheat. So not only is the game a potential title-decider but on some level it represents a battle between strategy and the lopsided wealth that has made the Prem uncompetitive. That's not to say that United haven't had their share of megabucks or that they haven't played their part in the stagnation of the league, but I think most people realise that nowadays Utd would be nothing without Fergie. Realistically, it probably won't live up to the hype. It surely won't beat Swansea vs Wolves the other day.

Terrible touch, Gabs.

Apparently we're sorely missing the partnership of "Richard Dunne and Richard Collins", never mind that one doesn't exist and the defence actually improved with the other out of the team. Great research, commentators.

I'll have whatever you're drinking! WBA would love nothing more than to put another nail in our coffin and do the double over us. Unlucky to lose? We weren't unlucky, we had nothing in the final third to suggest we deserved anything else! I'd agree with CI with regards to our loss to Bolton. It was a shocking performance, but up until we scored we were clearly the better side, we then collapsed for 2 minutes and didnt have the brains to get back into the game. We were the better side for the vast majority of the game and they basically had 2 meaningful attacks. I keep reading that we collapsed after our goal but it's not true. The game didn't switch after our goal, it switched after HT and our goal was somewhat against the run of play in the 2nd half. We may have been unlucky not to score in the 1st half, but losing had little to do with luck as Bolton had the better of the entire 2nd half.

You can add leagues mid-career in 2012, right? He'll probably turn up if you add the Bulgarian leagues to your world.

I can definitely understand the masochistic streak that secretly gets a bit of stimulation from all this. Personally, I don't see any meangingful positives from relegation and think there is a not insignificant chance that it could be the death of Villa as a top league club. I'm not convinced it will mean seeing the back of McLeish. Still, all football fans want to see their club playing the best football they can play. When I see Villa playing bad football for simple reasons, due to the ignorant decisions of those at the top, it's hard to even stay enthusiastic for our success because it vindicates Lerner and Faulkner's idiocy, just giving them the green light to make the same screw-ups further down the line. I support AVFC, not the hopeless, dismal, freakish football experiment 'EckFC' that we seem to have become, so I think it's natural to be feeling some serious cognitive dissonance about the situation we're in. If we do get relegated the only positive is knowing that Lerner's wallet will be suffering as badly as the Villa-loving and football-loving part of all our brains are suffering right now. Still, the long term consequences to the club could be devastating - just as they may be if we stay up with McLeish still at the helm. No light on any horizon. So yes, I understand the OP - the only pleasure we can take from the situation is by having a masochistic streak, so some fans are subconsciously developing one.

Definite penalty but unlucky. There was no option to just leave the ball alone, Cuellar had to intercept that cross. However he had to change direction which made him a fraction slow and allowed Eagles to sneak across him, so Cuellar's clearance becomes a kick to the shins. If he doesn't attempt the clearance then Eagles gets there unchallenged, if he does, he fouls and it's a penalty - either way Eagles was always getting the ball just outside the 6 yard box. Only thing for it was for Cuellar to be faster.

I'm a bit baffled by those who think N'Zog had a bad or mediocre game. OK he whiffed a lot of crosses into nowhere, but that was only after opening with two good ones at the very start. He also tormented the hell out of the Bolton defence with his runs and the goal was basically all his own work. That game is essentially the best he has to offer, the kind of football he advertised at Wigan last season, so we have to take it or leave it.

Really impressive performance. Good to see Barca properly knobbled by a team simply defending and dealing with everything they offered, and a 10-man team at that. And it became much easier to feel magnanimous about Chelsea's accomplishment with that word removed Terry off the field. Impossible to feel very inspired, though, considering I was watching it simultaneously with our Bolton game. Chelsea's performance was like the antithesis of our whole season. Neville said something like 'the most spirited performance you'll see from an English team' - I wonder if anyone will ever say that about Villa any time this decade.

Horrible, horrible result. Looked good in the first half with lots of fighting spirit. Heskey and Warnock played out of their skins (and Warnock continued to do so all game) and we were maybe unlucky not to have scored by HT. Still, we didn't, and in the end we were knobbled once more by Eck's inability to adapt to a changing game and whatever he said at HT. Warnock's goal was nice but Bolton had already been creeping right back into the game by then. I think Cuellar was unlucky - stonewall pen, but he due to having to change direction quickly he didn't see the player running from behind to get across him. After that mistake he had a nervous breakdown and played like dogshit. Second goal was a well worked surgical goal from Bolton, but there were a few limp-knobbed challenges that should have been better, Baker's in particular. MOTM N'Zogbia for being everywhere and carving Bolton's defence to bits singlehandedly time and time again. That was the performance we needed from him - shame we didn't quite get the performance we needed from everyone else, in particular the defence and McLeish. For anyone who would defend him - what exactly happened second half? What did he say to them that put Bolton on top (because they did get on top)? Or if it was Bolton that changed everything, why could McLeish not adapt? Whatever. McLeish has been dogshit for us this season and we are deservedly in the gutter we've been dropped in by him and, by extension, lerner.

Cuellar's totally lost confidence since that clumsy pen. No ideas up the other end. Table will look horrible after this.

Bolton coming back into it. I'd like to see Carruthers get at least a half an hour over Alby.

Worried that we're going to struggle for stamina towards the end if we don't score during all this high energy play.

Bolton playing very high and we're higher than usual too. Making for a really jerky chaotic game in the middle.

Bolton are finding their rhythm but the passing remains diabolical, fortunately. I'm worried about that Japanese kid they have though.

That's Reo Coker all over - gives it away with an arsehole of a pass then tracks back and intervenes with a hero tackle. Looks 'brave' and 'gritty' but all he's really done is lose 30 yards of ground under no pressure.

Hope Zog hasn't used up all his good crossing already. Dangerous stuff.

From the sounds of it there's no Gabby, so I guess so.

If N'Zog is pushed a little more central with Warnock staying wide, it could be interesting. Or it could be terrible. But either way I think N'Zog's performance will be the deciding factor. Do the old Wigan magic, sonny.

Didn't Warnock start wide left the last time he was used as a non-fullback? I suspect that's where he'll be again with Heskey more or less playing where Ireland would be. Oh god.

Gabby was a strange one and so is this. Not that Carlos isn't experienced and influential enough, but any one of these 5 upcoming games could be Carlos' last in a Villa shirt, since we're not making him a decent contract offer. Seems a strange person to switch the captaincy to at such a time.

You're right, I just woke up and had a total brainfart. Need to go and shove some food in my mouth before I post any more rubbish. I think Emile was transmitting his dreams of himself into my head while I slept.